Missouri baseball curbstomps Lindenwood 17-2 behind monstrous second and fourth innings
In Missouri baseball’s home opener against Lindenwood, the Tigers put on a firework show, which is a little weird considering that the Fourth of July isn’t for another 126 days. Nevertheless, Missouri’s bats were smoking hot in their 17-2 route of Lindenwood.
The first inning was uneventful, as both teams combined for one hit. The top of the second saw Nic Smith, who was making his first start of the season for Missouri, get the first two outs of the inning in style. Out number one was a routine comebacker to Smith, but the second was a rocket that Smith snared for out number two.
The Tigers didn’t stop there. With the bases loaded, shortstop Justin Colon hit a ground ball to Lindenwood second baseman Ethan Abercrombie. Abercrombie tried to flip the ball to shortstop Tyson Ludwig in hopes of catalyzing a double play. However, the ball got away, and Missouri capitalized on the Linden-whoopsie to go up 3-0. Moments later, Luke Mann sent a baseball into the Mizzou bullpen to make it 6-0 Tigers. After a sacrifice fly from Trevor Austin upped the lead to seven, the second inning finally came to an end after over 40 minutes of play.
Another sac fly by Austin followed by a passed ball made it 9-0 Missouri after three innings. The Lions finally got on the board with a two-run shot courtesy of third baseman Brett Bowers in the top of the fourth, to which the Tigers responded with a six-run bottom half of the inning. It took until the fifth batter of the inning for Lindenwood to record an out, and two of Missouri’s six runs were scored on Linden-whoopsies. I really hope my editor keeps this word in (if so, that’ll go down as a monumental writing victory for yours truly).
After another pair of Tigers crossed the plate in the bottom of the fifth, neither team scored until the game ended via run rule in the seventh. The win gives the Tigers their sixth win of the season and their fourth straight.
Smith, who was credited with the win, finished the afternoon allowing just one hit and a walk in three innings of work. Ty Wilmsmeyer finished the afternoon with three RBIs along with Mann. Every starting position player for Missouri either got on base or drove in a run, and 17 different Tigers took at least one at-bat.
“The biggest thing [today] was getting guys their first opportunity,” head coach Steve Bieser said after the game. “I thought our team did a really good job of staying focused and played the game well.”
Missouri’s next contest will come on Friday night when they host Texas Southern at 6 p.m. Lindenwood will travel to Texas for their next game against Texas A&M Corpus-Christi on Friday at 1 p.m.